A Healer's Story
by Elizarena
Summary: A Healer is brought to the mutant school. Given the choice to stay or leave in the face of the discovery of her new powers and surfacing love, will she stay?


Elizabeth woke up in a strange room, one she'd never been in before. It was all white and contained machines she could identify and others she hadn't a clue to what they were for.  
  
"It.it looks like some kind of lab," she whispered groggily. It took a second for that particular thought to truly register; when it finally did she tried to sit up. Tried, but failed, she was anchored down by wires.  
  
Elizabeth panicked. She started to thrash, but soon realized it was only getting her more tangled.  
  
"Think, Elizabeth. Use the brain God gifted you with. God knows it needs a bit of exercise after being ignored for so long. O.k.," she whispered, "I am in some strange lab, that must have been who I felt grab me after the fight. That must have been the reason for the fight." She sighed.  
  
"You knew you should not have trusted those goons, 'I need help with my sister'," she mimicked. "To bad I had already tried."  
  
"Anyway," she said, trying to get back her train of thought, "You tell him and his buddies you already tried, and she was beyond your Gifts reach. You apologized for not being able to help her. He said that was not good enough, and he attacked. You fought, his buddy got a shot at your head, and you lied on the ground stunned. Everything starts going dark, you hear more fighting. Then you get lifted up. The movement makes you sick, and you pass out, just to wake up in what appears to be someone's science lab," she finished, relieved she at least remembered what happened.  
  
"First, make sure there is no lasting damage. Second, heal any. Then untangle yourself, and find out whether this guy is friendly, or wants to dissect you."  
  
Elizabeth began her mental run through of all body parts, relieved to find no serious damage, only a few cuts and bruises that only took a second and a breath's worth of energy to heal.  
  
"Now to step two." She lifted her arms slowly, making sure there was nothing there to block them; relieved to find nothing holding them down. "Well obviously I am not a prisoner, yet."  
  
She reaches up to her face and pulls the wires away, chuckling at her earlier panic. It turned out she was not near as trapped as she had thought.  
  
"I have decided I do not care what this person wants, I just want out," she muttered, looking at all the equipment that surrounded her. It all looked too high-tech to be real, like something out of some strange science fiction movie.  
  
While she was searching for her real clothes, and her med bag, she heard the door open. She froze, crouched down behind one of the larger machines, listening.  
  
"What happened?" She heard a woman ask her companion, her voice full of the worry Elizabeth sensed rolling of the stranger. Elizabeth shifted trying to relieve the slight burning sensation all over her body.  
  
"He lost control of his power. He caused the tree in front of him to explode," the woman's companion informed her, none of the worry, or worry caused anger Elizabeth sensed from him entered his rough voice. "Someone's here, someone I don't recognize. Wait, where's the girl I brought in?"  
  
Elizabeth bristled slightly at being called "the girl" for a moment, she had a name after all, but she quickly realized they did not know it. She never carried identification, and she had been unconscious, how would they know her name?  
  
"Oh, Elizabeth, she's on the bed right the. Wait, she's not there! Where'd she go? Oh, never mind, we'll find her later, we have to deal with Todd first."  
  
How- Elizabeth was too shocked to form the question completely in her mind. But, as usual, she did not stay stunned long, she had learned long ago that to stay surprised was to stay vulnerable.  
  
"Can you help him, Jean?" the man said, his uncertainty and worry were like bile in the back of her throat.  
  
"I'm not sure, Logan, his burns and cuts are really bad, I'll do my best," Jean whispered, her worry increasing, making Elizabeth even more uncomfortable, adding to the burns.  
  
Wait, those weren't her burns! She realized why she felt so bad; the boy must be in shock for her to feel so little of his pain. Elizabeth reached her Healer's Sense out to the boy, realizing that what Jean had said was true. If Jean did manage to save him, which would be a miracle, he would be terrible scarred.  
  
Crap! She thought to herself, Damn my conscience!  
  
She quickly stood up and walked over towards the hospital bed, for she realized that's what the room was. Not some strange lab, at least not completely, but a hospital of some type.  
  
"I can-" she started, but could not finish, due to the blades now pointed at her throat.  
  
"Don't move," Logan said slowly.  
  
"Logan, stop, she means no harm."  
  
"You sure, Jean?"  
  
"Of course. Now what were you saying, Elizabeth?" Jean asked, turning back to the wounded boy. Elizabeth glanced at the boy to check how bad his wounds looked, they looked better then they were.  
  
"I can Heal him," she told the two in front of her calmly.  
  
"Can you?" Jean asked eagerly, hope as clear on her face as it was in Elizabeth's mind. Before Elizabeth could answer though, Jean had turned to the cabinet across the room and was zooming a small vile toward her.  
  
Elizabeth stared, her mouth slightly agape. She realized what she was doing before either of the other two did scolded herself. That has to be the third time today, young lady, don't let it happen again.  
  
"Yes," she answered, and walked up to the boy and placed her hand on his forehead.  
  
She heard Logan growl and start forward, then heard Jean stop him with a whispered, "She can do more then me." He backed down.  
  
Then Elizabeth was barely aware of, and what she was aware of she ignored, the world outside of dead and live tissues, a pumping heart, and expanding lungs. She started with the tissues on the torso, the ones that were most vital to the boy's survival, and most likely to produce shock if left unattended. She burned away possible infection and repaired the tissue so that any shards of tree trunk were removed.  
  
As soon as she was done with that, she moved to the face, then the limbs; following the same process.  
  
The whole procedure took only fifteen or so minutes. When that time was over, she scanned the boy's body slowly, searching for any other problems she might have over looked.  
  
With that done, she removed her Healer's Sight from the boy, and switched her main focus to her normal sight. She surveyed the boy, noticing only slight scarring from cuts on the boys torso, legs, and arms, from cuts, not burns. No scarring on the face, since the arms had most likely covered that as soon as the boy realized what had happened.  
  
"Lucky," she mumbled. She turned to look at the two who had been watching her. She answered the question in their eyes, "He'll be fine, he just needs a day, two tops, to recover; it took a lot of energy from him. He'll be starving when he wakes up, have s meal of mostly protein and carbs, but put a banana or apple, and his favorite vegetable with it, too. He has minimum scarring; he's lucky. He seems to have quick reflexes he covered his face quickly, if the lack of facial scarring is any indication."  
  
She sat down in the nearest chair quickly, that had taken a lot out of her, especial since she had not eaten since trying to heal that little girl. She pushed away the inevitable thoughts that brought, not ready to face a failed healing just yet.  
  
She looked up at the two in front of her, and asked the question that plagued her since she had woken up a half an hour ago. "Where am I? How did I get here, and why am I here?"  
  
"I believe I can answer that first question," said a bald man from the door way, he wheeled in and started talking again once he was across the hospital bed from Elizabeth, "I am Professor Xavier, and this my School for Gifted Youngsters. Logan, who I sent out to find you, because you are a young mutant, relatively new to her powers, brought you here. Oh, yes, and your powers are still growing."  
  
"What?" she exclaimed, jumping up. "My powers are still growing? That is impossible, I don't want any more 'power'; it's hard enough to live around people as it is! I don't need any more empathy, I can barely shield myself now."  
  
"That is why we brought you here, Elizabeth, to tech you how to control your powers completly. It is amazing that you taught yourself how to control them this well. Your type of power is notoriously tricky to control. And I do not believe you will develop more empathy, I believe you are developing a completely new power."  
  
Elizabeth sat down, deflated. She looked Professor Xavier in the eyes, "I had been fearing that," she whispered.  
  
"Why would you fear that, Child? I am sure it will be to your advantage."  
  
"Will it? How do you know?" She asked, but interrupted him before he could answer. "You don't," she continued, "No one but God can know. I have been extremely lucky in my Gifts so far. First my Healing and Empathy, soon followed by Animal Speech. All wonderful and useful, and everything one could wish for. But even they had a huge downside to counter the good. I do not need anything else to separate me from my family."  
  
After this was said, she stood up and walked away from the three, sitting there. She turned around slowly, surveying the three people before her, two stunned by her proclamation, one looking on knowingly. "Where is my stuff?" she asked slowly, "I got places I gotta be."  
  
"Do you?" asked the Professor, just as slowly.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Where? If I may ask."  
  
"No where specific. I'm a nomadic Healer, I got patients I got to see."  
  
"Maybe those patients are here."  
  
"You all have a doctor," Elizabeth told him, nodding towards Jean, "You do not need a Healer."  
  
"No, she only does this because we have no one better suited for it. If I had my way she would devote her time to her Gifts, and teaching." The Professor then narrowed his eyes, sensing the jump in her pulse at the mention of teaching, his eyes narrowed slyly, "Of course, you could teach as well. Be the school Healer, since those are your gifts you would be able to work on them, and you could teach too."  
  
She turned away, her heart in her toes. That was what she had wanted before.  
  
"Jean, Logan, bring her her things, then go. I have a few things to discuss with Elizabeth." Jean went over to the cabinet next to the door, and pulled a bundle of clothes and her med bad out. Her and Logan left, after her handing Elizabeth's belongings to her. "Good, now go into the bathroom, and change."  
  
When she had changed back into her usual jeans, white blouse, and boots, she came and sat where the Professor indicated. "Now," he started, leaning forward, "let's make a deal."  
  
"I'm listening," she said into the pause.  
  
"You stay here at least until your power is developed and under control. You act as the Healer, and teach a few classes, on whatever we decide at a later staff meeting. When you can prove to me two other teachers that you have your gifts under control, you can decide whether to leave, or stay on as a teacher and/or Healer. What do you say?"  
  
"Well, it would be nice to stay in one place for more then a few days. And teaching would be nice. Before I decide I have a few questions."  
  
"Of course, I expected no less."  
  
"First, how do you guys know my name?"  
  
"Oh, when I searched for young mutants in need of training, I caught sight of you. I sensed trouble, whether from the fight you were in when we found you, your burgeoning Gift, or both. I do not know. I quickly got basic information about you."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Computer data base, do not worry, I did not read your mind."  
  
"Would you, read my mind, that is?" She asked nervously, she liked her thoughts to stay where they were.  
  
"Not unless we thought you were a danger to yourself or to someone else. Even then we would try to talk to you first."  
  
"Good. What type of a living situation would I be stuck in if I decide to stay?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"How many people do I have to share a room, and a bathroom with?"  
  
"You get a room to your self, and you share a bathroom with one other person. The room can either be by the pool, most people's favorite, or by the library."  
  
Elizabeth's eyes lit up at the thought of a room by a library, for possibly months. She thought she would start drooling right there.  
  
"The library, then?" He asked. "My room is right above the library, I prefer it to the pool. For obvious reasons," he said with a chuckle, gesturing at his wheel chair. Her eyes darkened, she had not truly registered that him being in a wheelchair meant he could not walk. She never thought about it.  
  
As soon as that crossed her mind, the gears began to turn. Could she Heal him?  
  
"No, you can not Heal me, Elizabeth," he sighed, "Not I did not read your mind. And before you ask, the damage that was done has already healed, if you had been there when it happened you might have been able to fix it, then maybe. But it is not so bad, I do not need my legs to do what I must."  
  
"Enough of this, let us go get Logan to show you to your rooms. Then you can go drool over the books in the library," he said with a grin.  
  
She would ignore what the Professor had said about her not being able to Heal him. She would research how he got injured; maybe he just did not understand what was truly wrong with him. She would not get her hopes too far up, but she would not quit any time soon.  
  
She walked away from the hospital with a good feeling. She had a goal, and she was in place she could tell she would like. She already felt less alone. 


End file.
